Hedge fund strategies show mixed quarterly results

Global macro, event-driven, and commodity hedge fund strategies had weighted average third-quarter returns of 4.1%, 3.7% and 3%, respectively, based on funds administered by Citco Group. Almost three-quarters, or 74%, of event-driven funds had a positive return. Multistrategy, fixed-income arbitrage and equities had negative returns.

Overall, 50.8% of funds had a positive third-quarter return, up from 32.8% in the second quarter. Nonetheless, hedge funds had negative net flows for the quarter. Outflows were $39.4 billion vs. $30.4 billion of inflows.

Breaking down hedge fund performance by size, those with less than $200 million in assets had a -1.4% weighted average return while those with more than $3 billion returned -1.1%. Hedge funds with assets in between had relatively flat returns, ranging from -0.3% to break-even.